Fox Fire
by Izupie
Summary: Uraraka leads a hard and lonely life. Her innocent prayer, for the shrine to flourish again as it once did, gets fulfilled in a way that she would never have expected, and a foul mouthed, bad tempered Kitsune enters her life, who seems just as drawn to her as she is to him. It's just a shame that their worlds are so different - and that his is so dangerous.
1. Shrine

Sometimes Uraraka wasn't sure why she still continued to light the lamps. Each evening at sundown she battled with an old fiddly tin matchbox and lit them one by one so that the path to the shrine was lit up and welcoming to any visitors that may come to pray. Not that she ever got any visitors, she thought with a sting as the wind blew out yet another match before she could touch it to the oil-soaked wick inside the lamp. They were nearly as tall as her, made from old black painted iron, with a glass case on top. The glass opened on one side to reveal the wick and the pool of oil beneath it that she had to periodically replace. She'd heard that many shrines had upgraded from traditional style flame lit lamps and switched over to electronic - some of them were even on a timer so that a Miko wouldn't even need to turn them on. She sighed with a wistful longing as she pocketed the blackened match and drew out another, pushing her short hair out of her face as the wind continued to whip it around. Her Miko attire wasn't well suited to this kind of weather either, her long white kimono jacket sleeves were pushed up past her elbow, but they still flapped about in the gale, and her long baggy red hakama trousers caught the wind and made it difficult to stand in one place without it trying to tug her legs in a different direction.

Lighting the lamps wasn't ever too much of a problem, except on windy nights such as this, or when it rained, and she had to be grateful that there were only five of them on either side of the path leading to the shrine from a long set of old stone steps snaking up the hillside.

Being at the top of the hill was one of the reasons it got so windy, and Uraraka paused for a moment as she looked out over the small village she could see in the distance at the bottom of the valley. They were often sheltered from the elements by this very hill. She could see lights blinking into life one by one around the village, and she presumed everyone would be tucked up inside their homes now, maybe cooking food together, cosy and warm and safe with their families... She slapped her palm flat against her cheek, No no, this won't do! She thought fervently, tearing her gaze away from the soft glow below and determinedly gripping the tin matchbox. The remaining light of sunset was fading fast and she had a job to do.

She struck the match against its box with renewed energy.

"Come on," she hissed into the wind, "- ah!" The match was snatched out of her hand by a sudden gust. She tore after it automatically - it was one thing if the wind blew them out, but if she wasted perfectly good matches by her carelessness she would only have herself to blame when she inevitably had to buy a new batch on her barely-able-to-afford-to-eat budget. Uraraka trotted after it as fast as her sandals would allow and lunged down to the ground to slam her free hand onto the tiny piece of wood triumphantly. She'd got it! Only after she stood up, match proudly clutched in her fingers like she'd somehow bested the wind itself, did she consider the bright grass stains now streaked across the front of her pure white top. And that she still hadn't actually lit a single lamp yet.

Uraraka inhaled a long, deep breath, held it for five seconds and let it out slowly.

"Hey! Don't think I'm letting you off that - eas... ily..." She announced as she turned back to the path and let her words trail off and die at what she saw.

All of them were flickering brightly.

Each lamp had a small flame dancing in its case.

Oh.

Oh - !

Uraraka bowed repeatedly and shoved the match and box in a pocket so she could clap her hands together with great enthusiasm, exclaiming brightly into the wind, "Thank you! Thank you whoever you are, Spirit!"

She gained no reply for her thanks, and her father would have gasped in mock horror at the hastily yelled gratitude instead of the formal acknowledgement of her appreciation that she should have performed at the shrine itself. She smiled at the thought, hurrying inside out of the wind.

She was certain she could feel eyes on her back as she shuffled away, but saw nothing when she had one last look before sliding her front door closed with a firm clack.

The small house groaned with the force of the gales outside, but it was a sound she had grown very accustomed to and she barely even noticed the way the front door and wooden window guards rattled in their frames. Uraraka remembered fixing the large wooden panels to protect the fragile glass in the windows together with her parents whenever fierce winds were forecasted. They would turn long, noisy nights like this into a game, sitting together by lamplight; her father telling her stories of spirits and demons and gods while her mother made them hot tea. Uraraka slipped off her sandals and pulled the match she had saved out from her pocket and smiled at it sadly. They would have lit the lamps together too; her father cupping her hands as she lit each match, so the tiny flames wouldn't get blown out, and all of them laughing as her mother's robes flapped about in the wind. Uraraka knew she should be grateful for the twenty happy, peaceful years she had with her loving parents, but the two years she'd had without them still hurt so much.

Uraraka glanced over at the photo of her parents, placed proudly on display on a shelf in the living room, next to a clay ornament of a fox and a dish full of daisies, her mother's favourite flower. They were smiling and holding hands in the picture, in front of a shiny new sign that read 'Uravity-Inari Shrine'. There had always been a small shrine on this hill, but her parents bought the land before she was born with the intention of making it larger and providing a true place of worship for the Spirit, Inari. Uraraka knew that they had done all the work themselves and even built this house for them to live in so that they could oversee the maintenance of the land properly. Though the shrine remained fairly small they restored it into something beautiful. Her mother would hand out Omikuji fortunes from the Shamusho shrine office nearby and her father performed various rituals and administrative duties to keep it all running. Uraraka had entered into this world as soon as she was old enough to understand and had been helping them as a Miko for many years, happy to help and join them in their calling. But then...

She shook her head of her melancholy thoughts and shuffled into her bedroom, flicking on the lights as she entered. At least the lights inside the house were electric, she thought gratefully, glad of the large generator her father had installed one winter, but there was still no heating system, so the house could get drafty and cold. She pulled her kimono jacket over her head, too lazy to undo it, and held it up to inspect the stains. A clear smear of green ran down the front. It would definitely need washing tomorrow. She grimaced at the thought as she folded it up neatly and placed it to one side, hanging up her hakama trousers for the next day.

Once she'd had a bath and put on a baggy top and shorts Uraraka made herself some rice for supper and knelt down on a cushion to eat it at the table.

"Thank you for this..." She started, letting the rest of the sentence hang in the silence, broken only by the sound of the fierce wind outside. She swallowed thickly and tried again in a stronger voice, "Thank you for this meal!"

It wasn't really much of a meal though, and her chopsticks soon made light work of it. A source of great entertainment for her, being without a television or radio, was imagining what kind of food she would buy if she was rich; what kinds of meals she would cook and flavours she would eat. But even her imagination was frugal, and she often ended up thinking of the simple kinds of dishes her mother used to cook. She smiled a little as she washed her dish in the sink. Before her parents'... accident the shrine had been quite popular with the villagers and visiting tourists, giving them a steady income - never making them 'rich' - but they had had enough money to live by comfortably. Uraraka dried her hands and rubbed them over her face, her expression hardening into something full of determination and fire as she pulled her hands away and gripped them into fists by her side.

"I'll work harder," she promised to the empty room, "I'll work harder than ever and get visitors back here. Everyone is going to know Uravity-Inari Shrine! We'll be on the tourist maps and in guidebooks and they'll all pay their respects to Inari and the Spirits." Uraraka nodded her head enthusiastically at her own words.

But that made her remember the lamps from earlier... She wanted other people to pay their respects at the shrine, and she hadn't even done it herself. Uraraka frowned at her own feeling of guilt then quickly opened the kitchen cupboards for something else to cook.

The gale was still raging outside so she flung open the front door quickly, her breath snatched away in the windstorm, and slammed it shut firmly behind her, careful to keep a firm hold on the bundle she cradled in her arms. Her sandals were not the best footwear for moving quickly, but she managed to make it across the grass to the path leading to the shrine and clacked her way down it as the wind whipped her hair painfully into her face. She let out a relieved breath when she was sheltered from the wind inside the Haiden, the building for worship, as even though the building was mostly open to the elements, inside it felt calmer and the wind didn't whistle through it. She wondered if it was because of the Spirits.

Uraraka opened her bundle carefully, revealing a simple dish of fried tofu, and placed it gently on a small table in front of the shrine's altar. The smell of the incense she'd been burning in there earlier still clung to the air. With well-practiced grace she reached over and pulled a rope cord, ringing a bell above the altar, bowed twice, clapped twice and prayed. (She imagined her offering would be much better received if she was still wearing her Miko clothes, but her hoodie and shorts would have to do.)

She spoke aloud, softly, knowing it wasn't general practice to say a prayer out loud, but she'd already had a strange night so what was one more oddity to add to the list, "Thank you for earlier. That wasn't the first time you've lit those lamps for me, so thank you for continuing to help me, even though I haven't brought any visitors to your shrine," she added sheepishly. "My parents were always so good at all this, and I've not been doing a good job at all. I've always relied on so many people to help me, even spirits like you are good enough to support me." She sighed. "I'm sorry everyone thinks the hill is cursed. I still think I can prove them wrong though, if I just get one visitor, I can show them that this shrine isn't cursed at all! I just need one person to believe me!"

Uraraka was quiet for a moment, then she hastily wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Did you know some animals actually die of loneliness?" She said with a forced smile, hating the way her voice wobbled. "Anyway," she shook her head again, "I will just try and work even harder! Help keep me strong. Thank you."

With one more bow Uraraka turned around and left the small building, stopping suddenly as the overwhelming feeling she was being watched washed over her again. Was that a flash of animal eyes in the distance? She shuddered, squinting and blinking away her previous tears, but she couldn't see anything, so she just dashed back to her house through the driving wind once more.

Work began again with the dawn light. The wind had faded into a gentle autumn breeze sometime in the night, so the window guards could be safely taken down (they were heavier than they looked, so she huffed out a breath of relief when she had successfully heaved them all back into storage) and she had a path to sweep of all the leaf and tree debris that had been deposited on it. As she moved down the path with her broom Uraraka blew out the lamps, and soon it was looking neat, tidy and leaf-free again. She put her hands on her hips for a moment, satisfied with her work so far when the sun hadn't even fully risen yet, and looked out over the village below her; the sun was glinting off their windows and she could see chimney smoke rising from some of the houses. A crisp, cool and clear kind of autumn morning. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, enjoying the feeling of being cold to the touch but warmed up inside through hard work.

She would wash the stained kimono top from last night and then she'd have breakfast, she decided, putting away the broom. Luckily, she'd had plenty of spares to choose from this morning, as her drawers were mostly filled with clothing relating to shrine business. Uraraka stretched her arms above her head with a wince and a yawn as she entered her bedroom, ready to get this over with - she hated washing - and picked up the top. It unfolded as she lifted it and that made her pause. She tilted her head in confusion and flipped it around in her hands, holding it at arm's length to fully inspect it.

No stain.

But...

She brought her nose closer to the material. It smelled of something a bit like smoke - like it had been near a fire... And were those... animal hairs? Her eyes widened as she looked closely. It was difficult to tell, since they were also white, but she was sure that was fur - ?

Uraraka made a startled squeak at a sudden crash coming from outside, muffled slightly through the walls of her house, and hastily re-folded her top, scrambled to her feet and practically ran out of her room. A visitor? A _visitor?_

She nearly fell out of her door in her rush and had to quickly smooth down her long sleeves and hair before bowing slightly.

"Welcome to Uravity-Inari Shrine." She said with a buzz of excitement behind her words.

But when she straightened up there was no visitor. There was, however, a red fox frozen in mid-step on the path in front of her - with a mouth full of fried tofu. Uraraka's own mouth hung open slightly with words that she couldn't quite form, and she looked over to the Haiden building where her dish now lay in pieces on the floor. The fox still hadn't moved when her gaze returned to it, but its red eyes (should foxes have red eyes?) narrowed in an almost human-like manner as if to challenge her to say something. Then she blinked, and its eyes returned to the shade of yellow she would expect from a fox.

Finally she moved forwards, waving her hands in a shooing motion, and found her words, "Th-Thief! Hey, that doesn't belong to you! That's my offering for the Spirits!"

"No shit." The fox replied, around its mouthful of fried tofu. Uraraka blinked again. "What do you think _I_ am?"


	2. Fox

The fox spoke.

The _Fox Spirit_ just spoke.

(Didn't he just swear at her though? Should Spirits swear like that?)

Uraraka couldn't seem to find her own words for a moment, swept into a storm of disbelief and confusion, then she waved her arms in an almost flustered attempt to brush away her accusation of the fox being a thief.

"Ah - ! You - You're a Spirit?! I had no idea -" She almost yelled in her agitation.

Although she lived at a shrine, and had been surrounded by stories of Spirits, Gods and Demons all her life, Uraraka had never actually met one. There were times that she'd been helped by them, but it was always indirectly, as was the way with Spirits. They were an ethereal presence in their world that helped crops and flowers grow, provided good fortune, and carried messages to and from the Gods and higher Spirits. Occasionally in places like shrines, that were closer to their world, they would help with ceremonies and make their presence more known by ringing chimes and lighting incense sticks. Trivial things - like lighting lamps for a struggling Miko. Even her father had never met a Spirit face to face. It was a monumental honour.

Or it was supposed to be anyway, she thought, almost feeling the weight of the fox's intense yellow-eyed stare that seemed to burn right through to her very soul.

"Um, please accept my humble apologies Kitsune." She said more calmly, even though her arms were still flapping about in embarrassment as she bowed. "Of course, you may take my offering," her formal words were slightly stiff, not being used to speaking this way, "as my many thanks for your help last night. Please, Spirit, also take my gratitude to Inari for sending you to help in lighting the lamps - oh - and especially for getting rid of the stain from my... kimono... jacket..." Uraraka's voice faltered, as the more she spoke the angrier the fox seemed to get; the side of his muzzle pulled back from his teeth, even with fried tofu sticking out of his mouth, and his expression pulled into an angry snarl. She could hear the rumble of a growl deep in his chest.

The fox spat the food onto the floor. "Do I look like your fucking maid?" He snarled, as the fur on his shoulders spiked up.

Did his eyes just flash red again?

Uraraka had never been yelled at with such bad language, and she'd never been growled at by a fox either. Now she was getting both at once. Completely thrown off she only managed a squeaky, "Eh?"

"Like I'm going to do your dumb washing or light any of your stupid lamps! - You saying I've got nothing better to do?" His voice was rough and gravelly, laced with a growl.

"But... you..." Uraraka frowned. "You're not the Spirit that helped me last night?"

"Why would I help you?" He instantly shot back, bristled tail lashing.

"Well you're a Kitsune, and this is an Inari Shrine, and a Spirit really helped me out last night, so I left out an offering, and here you are eating it this morning..." She rambled. "So I thought Inari had sent you."

The fox growled more fiercely and lowered himself to the ground, ears flat against his skull. Uraraka swore that his pelt was white for a second, but it was such a fleeting impression that she wasn't sure.

She nearly didn't catch what he said through his growl, but he ground out, " _I'm nobody's messenger_."

His eyes glowed a vivid red.

She would have been lying to herself if she tried to pretend she wasn't afraid of the angry Kitsune Spirit in front of her, but she'd never let fear control her. Fear was something she could beat back with courage; courage to carry on without her family, courage to work hard even when she was unsure if what she was doing was right, courage to smile through loneliness and despair. Her father had always told her that she had a 'deep well of strength' hidden behind her smile. Sometimes she wondered if he would have been surprised if he could ever learn how deep she'd have to dip into that well just to put on her robes some days.

Uraraka took a breath to disperse her melancholic memories, shifted her sandaled feet into a wide stance, squared her shoulders, and put her hands on her hips. She was Ochako Uraraka - Miko of Uravity Shrine - and she was harder to intimidate than this. Especially since the fox only came up to her knees in height. And that despite the snarling, he was actually still kind of cute with those big black tipped ears and bushy tail...

"So that means you really are a thief." She huffed, and got the satisfaction of seeing the Fox's angry expression falter at her boldness; his ears flicked forward in surprise and she realised his eyes had faded back to yellow.

He cocked his head to one side. "Huh?"

"That was my offering you've just stolen - to thank whoever helped me last night and to thank Inari for sending them to me. I don't feed evil Spirits like - like Nogitsune," she declared.

"I'm not a fucking Nogitsu-"

"I have charms!" Uraraka continued, taking a step forward. "All kinds of charms for warding off bad Spirits. I could probably even exorcise you."

The fox blinked and growled softly, "Are you... Are you stupid? You're threatening me, a Spirit, right to my face? You've just said you think I'm evil - shit - how do you know I won't just snap your neck or something?"

Uraraka gasped, "Well you just threatened to murder me!"

"Only because - You - You - Argh!" The fox shook his head vigorously. "This is so dumb! Just stay out of my way." He bent over to pick the tofu back up in his mouth but Uraraka took a huge step forward as soon as he moved. He stopped and so did she.

"You're kidding me." His eyes, red again, locked onto hers and she shivered.

But again he went to pick up the food, and again she stepped towards him.

Her eyebrows were pinched close together, and her mouth was set into a firm line. She had courage, she reminded herself, and a deep well of strength to draw from.

"Seriously? You're gonna, what, fight me over a scabby bit of dried up tofu?" He demanded with another lash of his tail.

But this wasn't about the tofu itself. Not really.

Move.

Step.

This was about the shrine they left her to protect. And the offering that wasn't his to take.

Her fists clenched tighter, arms taught by her sides, even though they were shaking.

"You got a death wish?" He spat, but Uraraka noticed one of his paws twitched backwards as she took another step forwards.

"It's because of evil Spirits that my parents..." She willed her voice not to falter, but she hesitated to finish the sentence.

"I already told you," the fox said through clenched fangs, "I'm not a fucking evil-"

"So I won't let anything bad happen to this Shrine." Uraraka cut him off again as determination pulsed through her and banished her common sense - was her stubborn streak about to get her killed? She knew better than this. Spirits were powerful beings... what was she doing standing up to one? She didn't agree with him calling her stupid, but she couldn't deny that this was foolish - she should just let him take the food. But... She just... felt like this was something she had to do, deep in her soul, and she couldn't ignore that feeling. Her mother had always told her to listen to her instincts as a shrine maiden, so that's what she was doing.

 _Ridiculous Miko instincts_ , she chastised internally, _how can stopping a short tempered Kitsune from eating my (not even very well cooked to be honest) tofu be some pivotal moment in my life_?

Uraraka took a deep breath and steeled her expression. Right or wrong, foolish or not, she ignored her shaking body and stood her ground.

For a long moment neither girl nor fox moved a muscle. She stared unflinchingly into his eyes, and he stared right back. There was something otherworldly about his eyes, that seemed off in the face of a regular looking red fox.

"To hell with this!" He exploded. "Keep your stale tofu! I don't need your charity anyway, I just thought this would be an easy meal, but it's not worth the fucking headache." He lowered back down to the ground, fangs bared, then before Uraraka could even blink he shot away down the path. His claws clicked a steady rhythm on the stone, then he launched through the large red Torii gate standing proudly over the top of the staircase and disappeared.

Uraraka visibly deflated as soon as his tail whisked away out of view; she let out a huge shaky breath, her shoulders slumping, and sank to the ground as her trembling knees finally giving way. She clamped a hand over her mouth as she struggled to push down the wave of nausea that swept through her, wishing she coped better with adrenaline.

As soon as she was sure she wouldn't throw up Uraraka let out another long breath.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she muttered, not even caring that she was echoing the fox's words from earlier. "That was so stupid." She repeated over and over, fighting the tears burning in the backs of her eyes.

What a silly thing to fight a Spirit about. She'd won that battle, but even though he was bad tempered like a child, and barely came up to her knees, he _was_ a Spirit and she was probably cursed to bad luck for the rest of her life or something now, she thought, as she pulled herself back up to her feet.

It only took a couple of wobbly steps to get to the abandoned tofu. When she lifted it up she could see tiny puncture holes from the fox's teeth in it, and the side that had been lying on the ground was now covered in a light dusting of dirt. So much for her offering. She gave an uneasy glance back to the Haiden, the small building he had stolen the tofu from, where two weathered statues of foxes stood proudly to either side of the open entrance, a stone ball clutched between the left's jaws and a key in the jaws of the right.

She felt a guilty tug low in her stomach and she hoped it wasn't still the nausea. Inari was the Kami - God, Spirit, Deity - this shrine worshipped, and the Kitsune were his messengers. That much she had always known from when she was a child. For that Kitsune to have gotten so angry when she mentioned Inari... How odd...

Would her father have been proud of her for meeting a Spirit? Or disappointed that she fought with him?

Would her mother be tenderly wiping away the tears threatening to fall down her cheeks? Or would she be asking Inari for forgiveness?

She just didn't know.

Once the tofu had been placed in the bin, and she'd swept up the fragments of the dish that had broken, Uraraka realised she still hadn't eaten breakfast. In fact, she was quite surprised to see how early in the morning it still was. All the energy had drained right out of her from her confrontation, and it hadn't even lasted all that long.

A small bowl of hot porridge helped to settle her frayed nerves, but she still had a strange persistent feeling that he would be back; terrified that she had somehow brought a curse upon herself for fighting with him like that, and that he would be back for retribution. Especially considering he seemed like the sore loser type... as much as a fox could seem like a sore loser anyway.

There was only one way she could ease her mind, not having anyone to talk to this all about, so Uraraka strode with purpose across the house, her socks thumping loudly on the wooden floor, and slid open the door to her parents' room. It was a spacious room, bigger than hers, but she'd never even been tempted to move into it for the two years she'd spent there alone. Her family had always been careful with their money and although the room was large, it contained very little in the way of furnishings: Their double futon took up a large amount of floor space, a simple dresser stood at one end, an oval mirror on top with various kinds of fox ornaments beside it, a sliding wardrobe ran the length of the room, painted with a scene of foxes running through a meadow of daisies, and a tall bookcase stood next to the dresser, filled with thick ornate looking books. Inside the room there was an air of quiet and serenity that never seemed to fade, no matter how long her parents had been gone, and it still even smelled of them - her mother's favourite rosewood incense lingered, like the room itself refused to give up the scent to time.

She shuffled into the room quietly and went straight to the bookcase. Her finger ran delicately and affectionately over the old book spines, recognising books that her father would read to her when she was small, or that she had borrowed from him when she was old enough. When she found the one she was looking for (a thin red book with the word 'Kitsune' etched onto the front in gold lettering) Uraraka bowed slightly as she exited the room, book clutched to her chest, and ran over to her own room, threw the door open and almost skidded down onto her knees. Her room was much smaller than her parents, though she had still managed to squeeze in a double futon, a plain wooden wardrobe that stood in one corner, a chest of drawers next to that, and a long bookcase ran the entire length of the wall, crammed with books.

She put the book on her tatami floor carefully and rearranged herself so that she was sitting with her knees tucked underneath her and swept back the long kimono sleeves of her Miko uniform. The book was hand-bound so she made sure to treat it carefully as she opened the cover, but it still creaked with disuse as she did so. Inside was the elegant script that she knew belonged to her grandfather - many of the books in her father's personal collection had been written and bound by him - as he had apparently been an extremely spiritual Shinto priest when he was alive. Even though she'd never met her grandfather Uraraka used to hope that she would take after him when she was a child.

"Kitsune," she read aloud, "are Fox Spirits, commonly associated with the Kami, Inari. They often act as messengers of Inari. Despite this Kitsune can be tricksters and are particularly skilled at illusions. Kitsune have two natural forms, that of a slightly larger fox, and a human shape still possessing the fox's ears and tails. They can hide themselves in the illusions of a regular fox and a fully human shape, though this trick does not influence the Kitsune's reflection and their true form can be seen within a mirror, even when in disguise. A person possessing spiritual foresight may also be able to see through any illusions a Kitsune may create."

Uraraka paused and thought about the times the fox's eyes flashed red, realising that must have been his natural eye colour showing through his disguise, and she felt a jolt of surprise that she could be a person considered to be 'possessing spiritual foresight'. Unless he was just bad at maintaining his illusions while he was angry... Come to think of it, hadn't his fur flashed white at one point too? She drew her attention back to the book.

"Inari's kitsune are white and considered a good omen as they possess the power to ward off evil," she continued in surprise, "and can even serve as Guardian Spirits. They usually fight off Nogitsune, Spirit Foxes with no honour, and other bad Spirits. They can be incredibly defensive over those they are guarding and will remain steadfastly loyal to anyone who has earned their respect. A Kitsune will not break a promise."

She couldn't imagine the Kitsune from this morning having any of these noble traits or defending anyone from anything. She still wasn't convinced that _he_ wasn't a Nogitsune, despite what he said. She turned the page and continued reading aloud again, "Kitsune possess many supernatural abilities, that increase with their age - a Kitsune may live to be over nine-hundred years old - including generating fire, possession and creating illusions. They can have up to as many as nine tails, with the amount of tails relating to both the number of hundreds of years it has lived and the great deeds it has performed, each tail only being earned through a noble act."

She wondered how many tails the Kitsune she met had under his illusion... Unless he really did have only one, and that wasn't part of the illusion at all. 'Noble acts' and 'great deeds' weren't expressions she would associate with that snarling, bristling, swearing fox she remembered.

Uraraka closed the book and placed it beside her pillow, ready to continue reading it later, feeling both intrigued and troubled by what she had read. At least it didn't mention anything about curses, she thought with a sigh of relief. She stood up and stretched her arms above her head. She may have had a shaky morning (the shock of meeting a spirit and standing up to him like that still hummed through her bones) but it was still up to her to keep Uravity-Inari Shrine in order and she had a job to do.

Uraraka spent the next few hours tending to the small vegetable patch behind the house with her long sleeves tied up and a faded red apron over her Miko attire to protect her clothes, and even her short hair was kept tied back from her face with a ribbon. It was a chilly day to be gardening, but it had to be done. She only owned a tiny watering can, that was more decorative than practical, so she had to constantly shuffle back and forth in her sandals to the tap, so she could water each plant in turn, then she had to inspect the leaves for pests, pull out any weeds and take some trimmings from the herb plants. Sometimes it was hard to keep the crops going in the cold frosts of autumn, but if she tended to them carefully like this she usually got some decent food out of it for a fraction of the price she would pay down in the village. Finally, she wiped sweat from her forehead and stood with her hands on her hips to admire her work.

It looked great, but usually gardening took her mind off everything, and she was disappointed that she was still thinking about Kitsunes.

She shook her head forcefully and pulled the ribbon from her hair, letting her long front bangs float down to her shoulders again. It wouldn't do to keep dwelling on a Spirit who had made such an angry expression at the mention of Inari and had tried to steal an offering. Both were bad omens surely.

Once she'd cleaned up Uraraka stuck another incense stick into a bowl of sand beside the altar in the Haiden, letting the scent curl around her. She breathed it in deeply and pulled softly on the rope chord that would ring the altar's bell, appreciating the pure, clear sound and the familiar smell. With the prayer ritual completed she brought her hands together, closed her eyes and bowed.

 _I met a Kitsune today_ , she thought in her silent prayer, _but I still don't know whether you sent him or not. He was so angry... I think he must be acting on his own. But I'm sure he was white, so maybe he was once one of yours? Maybe you two had a falling out?_ She entwined her fingers and clenched them tight.

 _He was rude, he called me names, and he tried to steal the food I'd left at your shrine last night,_ she frowned, _so I'm glad he left. But... I think what's been bothering me is that... I asked for a visitor, and a visitor is exactly what I got... You know what, that was actually the first time I've spoken to anyone except for you, or myself, in over a month. I think... I was also a little exhilarated. I felt like a real Miko, protecting my shrine. So... If you did send him, I guess I should still thank you. And if you didn't and you did have a falling out, then don't worry - I took care of him. He won't be back here._

But even as she bowed again to complete her prayer, and went back to the house, she could swear that she felt a familiar sensation of being watched. Though there was nothing when she turned around and looked.


	3. Bakugou Katsuki

In a secluded forest, on the slope of a mountain-side, an explosion of bright crimson fire burst into the sky with a boom that shook the trees down to their roots. Oddly, despite the huge blast of angry red flames, the forest remained completely unburnt, as the explosions seemed to pass straight through the trees like mist.

The forest grew wild and untamed on a large hillside near to Uravity Hill. Trees were gnarled and old, and vines looped between branches and trailed down trunks to snake across the spongy, leafy forest floor. Light barely filtered through the thick canopy, lending an otherworldly appearance to the place; illuminating the strange mushrooms that grew among roots, and atop the hollow carcasses of trees that had died and fallen long ago, and the thick brightly coloured mosses that bloomed throughout the undergrowth. If he wasn't sure that he hadn't passed through the veil separating their worlds, Bakugou would have sworn that he was somewhere in the Spirit World instead. Pollen and dust motes danced in the thin shafts of sunlight that made it through the tiny gaps in the leaves above, while strange bugs flitted through the shadows. The foliage and the thick undergrowth gave an odd cushioning effect to sound, so the whole forest seemed eerily silent, and other than the bugs and the occasional evil Spirit or Demon, he had never come across anything living inside it.

A small, ordinary red fox stood quivering with rage beneath the canopy, red flames licking out from his paws. " _Shi-t!_ " The fox yelled, holding the word, as fire exploded out of his body and into the branches above. He breathed deeply, struggling with his turbulent mixture of emotions, and let the illusion he'd been holding on himself melt away as the flames died down.

The fox, that was previously the size of a small dog, was now as tall as a deer, and the once russet fur was now pure white, with bright crimson markings at the tips of his ears, striped under each narrow red eye, swirled onto his shoulders and tipping all eight of his long bushy tails, as if he'd dipped them in red paint. Various earrings hung from both pointed ears that jingled as Bakugou shook himself all over, and he fanned out his eight tails gratefully, trying to curb some of his anger and shake away the discomfort of his regular fox form - holding that one for a while always made him feel itchy afterwards. A faintly glowing red orb was tied around his neck with a thin red chord, and it pulsed rhythmically, like a heartbeat, in the gloom of the forest.

The growl he'd been pushing down remained burning deep in his chest, and he took another shaky breath to try and quell the feeling.

 _That complete and utter goddamn fucking idiot Miko,_ his thoughts raged _._ She didn't know how lucky she was that he'd been able to control himself. (Though the grip on his self-control had been thinner than he liked to admit.) He was a Spirit, but he was also still a Fox, and when challenged in a power play like that there was only one response that fired into his canine brain over and over like a blinding, searing pain. _Fight fight fight_.

He'd have killed her.

His eyes had already locked onto her damned delicate throat, and his paws had been itching to leap.

Even the memory was enough to make Bakugou want to gag.

His eight tails lashed in different directions, giving form to his agitation, and the growl he'd been holding back finally rumbled out of his chest. She was willing to challenge him over that stupid offering, moving forward with no hesitation each time he tried to move away, and ended up putting her life on the thin (too thin) sliver of his control over his predatory fight or flight reflex... _Shit._ He'd had no choice - he'd had to back down. He'd _had_ to, he reminded himself through the sting of something that felt like defeat, or she'd be dead. Bakugou flattened his ears back to his skull and sat down on his haunches heavily on the forest floor, feeling a bitter resentment settle like a weight on his chest; he hated - _hated_ \- backing down.

He'd renounced all his ties to Inari, and he wanted absolutely nothing more to do with the Kami, the other Spirits and Demons, or the Spirit World, but there was no way he was becoming a Nogitsune. _No fucking way_. He'd have hunted her damn Spirit down and killed her _again_ if he'd have inadvertently murdered her and it had corrupted his essence into becoming one of those bastards.

So now he was pissed off. _Severely_ pissed off. And it was all her fault for somehow managing to limit him to two equally goddamn shitty options.

Bakugou's claws sank into the soft forest floor. Spirits and humans weren't meant to interact much, especially not face to face, and he'd probably broken countless rules just in one meeting. Not that he really cared about any of the rules from the Spirit World he'd left behind. _They can shove their rules up their asses,_ he thought angrily _._

And this whole situation was even more fucking ridiculous because the offering dish that had fallen and alerted her to his presence should never even have smashed in the first place. He had slipped into the Haiden while he knew she was inside her house, easily picked out the fried tofu with his needle-sharp fox teeth, and that was that. He hadn't even touched the damn dish. When it smashed to the floor he was already some ways down the path leading to the shrine, and it had been so unexpected that he'd simply frozen in place mid-step in disbelief, so by the time that Miko girl had virtually launched herself out of her front door, he was still frozen there.

He suspected foul play. Something knocked that dish down. It would have to have been somebody powerful to have hid their aura from him, but why would any Spirit with any kind of power be interested in doing that? And he had been dead certain that he was the only Spirit for miles that knew about the tiny shrine.

He narrowed his eyes.

It was why he had ended up there in the first place a few years before. Not too long before the two owners of the shrine died. Leaving just her.

The memory of her welcoming him to the shrine still rang through his ears, and he forcefully dragged a paw over both ears in turn and shook his head like a dog, as if that would dislodge her hopeful excited voice from his brain. She was small in height and everything about her seemed soft and round; big brown eyes, bouncy hair that framed her round expressive face, and cheeks that always blushed pink like she was fucking full of life or something. But... there was something deeper than that to her that he couldn't explain, like she had this fire about her - something strong and hard as iron beneath all that roundness - that made her do dumb shit like lighting lamps in gale force winds and picking a fight with a Kitsune over an overcooked slab of fried tofu, and then telling them that they were a thief for trying to take what was rightfully theirs in the first place...

Bakugou's muzzle crinkled into something resembling a scowl.It's not like he'd denied it when she first accused him of being a thief (he was pretty sure he'd nailed his reply of 'no shit, what do you think I am?' in a detached, irritated kind of way, while he was trying to ignore the internal screaming of _fuckfuckfuck_ ). He hadn't even outright denied it at any point after that either, thinking back, he'd just felt his hackles rise with her virtually suggesting him of being one of Inari's lapdogs, and then she'd thanked him in that weird sincere formal voice, making out as if he was out there performing favours for her, and he'd just kind of exploded.

If she hadn't been busy trying to kill herself with lighting those damned useless lamps, he wouldn't have been forced to intervene and light them for her, instead of her spending the rest of the fucking night chasing after unlit matches blowing away in the wind, and him the rest of the night having to watch the whole painful fucking spectacle. Even her uniform was a mess, since she'd taken a nose dive to the floor (which she'd fully deserved for her stupidity, in his opinion). But he'd hung around a little after that, not like he had anywhere better to be anyway, and he'd heard her prayer when she put down the offering. He'd never heard so much pain buried under a wobbly too-cheerful voice... She was just a loser Miko trying her hardest, and her shitty uniform had no right to get dirty like that and cause her extra unnecessary work, dammit. So he'd used his Fox Fire to burn the stain away.

 _Argh_ , _why did I even do that for her?_ He thought, feeling like growling again. He'd already told her he wasn't her maid, and he wasn't one for doing anyone any kind of favours, so what had made him do that?

In the end, he realised, with appreciation for the weird irony of it, she had prayed for a visitor, and she'd got one. Though that wasn't exactly his first time to the Shrine... Bakugou looked up into the canopy of leaves, the sun barely breaking through, and huffed a short sharp breath through his fox nose.

A sudden cold pulse shot through Bakugou's chest from the orb around his neck, alerting him to the presence of an evil aura before he even caught the movement in his peripheral vision to warn him of an attack. Instantly he leaped to his paws and dove to the side, rolling with the burst of momentum, and then pushed himself upright to face his attacker with his claws firmly gripping the forest floor, hackles raised and a snarl ripping through his jaws. His canine eyes saw the creature in front of him perfectly; it had violet coloured skin and was undoubtedly tall, even hunched over like it was, with arms almost the length of its whole body that dragged along the floor, its bulbous eyes were locked onto him, but its expression remained vacant, and its brain was disturbingly uncovered by any skull on the top of its head.

"Good. I need a good fight I can win." Bakugou's voice came out barely more than a growl, and he grinned, revealing his sharp teeth.

The Yōkai were creatures of evil intent; bad Spirits and evil Demons, and they came in countless varieties and types. Not all Demons were Yōkai and not all bad Spirits were 'evil' enough to be considered Yōkai either, but these creatures Bakugou had been encountering lately were the purest definition for the term. On cue, the creature raised its long stretchy arm in a blur of movement that Bakugou only just had time to comprehend, before it came crashing down to where he had previously stood. He had sprung into the air, using all the strong muscles in his haunches to propel him upwards, and slammed his body weight down on the clawed hand that had embedded itself into the soft, leafy earth beneath him. He let heat blaze through his paws and pushed his intent to burn and destroy into the Fox Fire that pulsed through his veins.

"Die!" He snarled as an explosion of red fire blasted down onto the creature's hand.

It made a pained squealing sound as it yanked its long appendage back, elastic skin resuming its normal long shape and black smoke curling from the charred remains of its hand.

"I'm not in a good mood today," Bakugou growled, lashing his tails, "so you came at a perfect time for me."

But he could see the creature preparing to attack using his other arm, and Bakugou was internally less sure than he let on, realising his blast did less damage than he had expected. _Shit._ These purple brain-y Yōkai had been appearing more frequently recently, and they were getting increasingly more powerful. Humans couldn't perceive them in the same way other Spirits and Demons could, but they would spread misery and misfortune wherever they went in the Human World.

Bakugou tensed his limbs, ready to dodge again, while his fur bristled with anticipation.

Then before Bakugou even had time to blink, his red eyes widened at the sight of a crimson blur barrelling straight into the creature's chest, slamming it onto its back. It screeched as it went down heavily.

"Now's your chance!" A familiar voice yelled from his crouched position on top of the Demon. Bakugou had already closed the distance between them and clamped his jaws across the Yōkai's throat.

"Die!" He snarled again, though his voice came out muffled from the tough skin gripped tightly between his teeth. He summoned his Fox Fire again, pushing it through his jaws, and a violent explosion engulfed himself, the creature, and the shape still pinning it down.

In the aftermath of the explosion the Yōkai's body faded into a purple mist, leaving no trace of it, and Bakugou stepped backwards panting with exertion.

"Nice!" The voice from before said appreciatively with a whistle, dusting his hands on his trousers.

"Eijiro," Bakugou snapped between breaths, "what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Uh, helping you kick ass obviously," Eijiro Kirishima replied breezily with a grin from ear to ear. "Just like the good old days."

Bakugou huffed, but there was good humour in his eyes, since fox muzzles didn't lend themselves to smiling very well (something he was sometimes grateful for). His friend looked exactly as he remembered; bright red hair spiked up behind his two golden horns, while he wore black sleeves and plates of black armour that covered his arms, he always left his toned torso bare, and wore baggy pants tucked into boots, both black, with a white fur trim on them. Around his middle was a thick chord of red rope, tied over a golden tiger striped sash. Most Oni had just as good night vision as a Kitsune did, so he had no doubt that he could see just as clearly in the gloom as he could.

"You say the 'good old days' like it's not been less than just a decade since you last saw me, hair-for-brains." Bakugou sat back down and let his tails fan out behind him. "And I could have taken it." He added stubbornly. "But it went down quicker with you there I guess."

Kirishima laughed. "You're welcome, man."

Trust Kirishima to be able to see through his bullshit bravado and find the thank you he'd been hiding underneath it. "How'd you find me anyway?" Bakugou asked, narrowing his eyes. He'd thought he was truly untraceable out here.

"You kidding? Your aura gets way strong when you're angry, and it was blazing like a beacon! Plus, the columns of Fox Fire blasting into the sky kind of gave you away too," Kirishima added cheerfully. "Actually, I've been looking for you for a while and I guess I got really lucky. It's hard to track you in the Human World." He admitted.

"Exactly why I stayed here so long," Bakugou snapped, "I didn't want to be tracked down. Not even by you."

"I know, man, I know. And I'd have let you sulk in your fox form for another decade or two usually-"

Bakugou flattened his ears. "I'm not fucking sulking!-"

"-But it's chaos in the Spirit World right now. The Yōkai we just fought are something new called Nomu, and they're generating faster than we can banish them." Kirishima's expression became serious, and Bakugou angled both ears forward to catch every word, understanding the gravity of the situation. " _And_ they're getting stronger! It's crazy - they're even leaking out into the Human World. Once they start really getting through in big numbers it's going to go to hell here pretty fast." His eyebrows drew together in concern, drawing attention to the bright scar above his right eye, then a small, tired smile broke through his worry. "But - hey - kind of good news actually, 'cause now we know there's a powerful Demon behind all this, since those guys don't look smart enough to get out on their own."

The angry crease above Bakugou's muzzle remained, even while he said nothing, and he looked across at his friend's earnest red eyes.

"Must be bad for a Demon Prince to be out here fetching me personally," Bakugou finally said.

Kirishima's hands suddenly gripped tightly by his sides and a shadow crossed his expression. "They got Mina."

Bakugou's tails flicked in surprise.

"She was taking one on by herself to protect some lake Spirits. Gods, she's so epic, I swear - just - just - so _manly_ you know?!" Kirishima's tone was light, but his hands were shaking. "She got them away, but the Nomu got _her_ \- pierced her stomach - nearly bled to death."

"Fuck." Bakugou growled.

"By the time I got to her the thing was already banished. And then she smiles this huge Mina shit-eating grin at me and tells me not to worry because even if she- even if she dies, at least she'd burned its face off before she went."

" _Fuck,"_ Bakugou repeated, more softly.

"But she's okay!" Kirishima lost some of the tension in his body and a tender look shone in his eyes. "She's been healed, she just needs to rest, I'm taking care of her for now, so she'll be fine."

Bakugou realised what this was about then, and why his friend had tried so hard to seek him out, fully knowing that he had secluded himself off from everything on purpose. "They've made it personal for you now."

"Exactly," he nodded. "I mean, of course it was a problem before, that I was trying to do something about anyway, you know, but now... now I want to personally wipe them from existence. I don't know what kind of Demon curse is spawning these Yōkai but they need to be stopped." He raised a hand and gripped it in front of himself in a fighting pose. "I need you with me, bro. We've got to find out who's doing this and destroy them and their curse, before it's the end of both worlds."

Bakugou opened his jaws to agree wholeheartedly; there was nothing he enjoyed more than a good fight, especially by the side of his oldest friend, but then he stopped. The memory of thinking he might not be enough to banish that one Nomu flashed into his mind. He knew that if Kirishima hadn't shown up it would have been a difficult fight. That wasn't good enough. As it was, he only had eight tails, even though he'd lived for just over nine hundred years. Kitsune earned their tails through having to live that many years, and through performing a noble act to _earn_ that tail - and the added power that came with it. The ninth tail was the hardest to earn, as it unlocked the Kitsune's true potential and gave them a huge reserve of power to draw from, so the problem he was having was finding an act big enough and selfless enough to grant him that last one, especially since he didn't go out of his way to do anything even remotely selfless for anyone. The other tails he'd earned in many ways, but none of those small niceties would work for the ninth and he knew it.

He detested the thought of considering himself as 'weak', but until he got that last tail, he thought bitterly, he wouldn't be able to really take those bastards on.

Bakugou clenched his fangs together and Kirishima's fist dropped slightly. "Katsuki?"

"Look... I can't... I- shit- I can't believe I'm saying this..." Bakugou ground out with a struggle, "But I'm not strong enough yet. Fuck! I _know_ I'm not strong enough yet."

"It doesn't matter! We'll take it all on together and-"

"It does matter!" He spat. "It matters because I don't want to be a burden, I don't want to slow anyone down, I want to be there fucking laying into them without anyone having to even consider my safety! I should be able to kill them no problem, but the way I am now..." Bakugou suddenly took a few steps forward so that he was standing right in front of his friend, his large Kitsune body coming up to Kirishima's chest height, then locked their red eyes together. Something ancient and powerful blazed in his fox eyes as he said, "I promise I will come back and I will banish as many of those bastards as I can, after I get my ninth tail."

A Kitsune is unable to break a promise. They both knew that.

Kirishima looked mildly shocked, eyes wide, at the response he'd obviously not been expecting.

"I don't know how long it's going to take," Bakugou growled, breaking the intensity of the moment and lashing his tails, "because fuck knows I'm not good at being selfless. I'm not even promising I'll do this to save the worlds or some shit like that- I'm doing it for Mina, and I'm doing it for you, 'cause it's not like you can be a Demon Prince without the kingdom to go with it." Bakugou huffed while Kirishima laughed heartily. "And who gives a damn about the humans, but Spirits can't survive without them, so it's a selfish thing to want to save them too- so I don't fucking die myself."

"Yeah, you're pretty bad at doing shit for others, bro." Kirishima smiled sadly. "And I know you too well to think I can change your mind. Just... Don't take too long alright. I thought I'd be bringing you back with me, and now I need to explain to Mina why you're not there. You better come back soon, or we'll banish them all without you!" He held out a clenched fist and Bakugou slammed his large paw on top, earning him another of Kirishima's smiles.

"Go back to your Princess, Shitty-Hair, get her better, and don't either of you die before I earn that ninth tail and come back to kick ass with you both. I'll kill any I see you miss that leak out into the Human World while I'm here, that'll keep me busy until then." He exposed his fangs in something resembling a smile.

Kirishima's smile widened even further while he gave Bakugou a double thumbs-up, and then he disappeared.

It was always something of a weird anti-climax watching a Spirit or Demon shifting through the veil into the other world, because it always felt like there should be a puff of smoke or sparkles or a pop or some shit to go with it. Maybe he'd spent too long in the Human World.

It sucked, having to admit to his weaknesses, it really sucked, but there was no way he wasn't going to be at his very top strength if they were going after Demons. Getting nine tails had always been his dream, but he'd gotten so close to it and just couldn't seem to get any further. Maybe now it was his time to finally achieve that goal.

Bakugou shook himself all over like a dog, clearing away the complicated emotions of his talk with his oldest friend. At least he wasn't angry about that stupid Miko anymore. Small victories. Now he just had to figure out a way to do something selfless enough to earn him the tail that had eluded him for nearly a hundred years already, and it had to be a bigger gesture than just lighting some lamps or burning out a stain with Fox Fire, it had to be-

Wait.

The Miko.

 _Of course!_

She was his way to get that final tail. All this time all she'd ever wanted was a real visitor to her shrine, isn't that what she kept praying for? He could fulfil that wish for her, and _selflessly_ provide himself as that visitor. She could show him around and he could pretend to be enthusiastic (he hoped) and surely, by the end of the day, when he'd spent all that time with her, her emotional prayer of thanks to _Inari himself_ would be the act big enough to turn him into a Nine-Tailed Kitsune.

All he had to do was hold back his temper for a day, cut back on the swearing so she didn't recognise his voice, and keep his fox ears and tails hidden. Then he could get straight back to Kirishima and Mina and they'd banish Yōkai together again like they did a few hundred years ago, and he wouldn't get in their way, he'd be leading the fight. Easy.

Bakugou hadn't used his fully human form in a very, very long time, so that was going to take some getting used to... but he was sure it wouldn't be anything he couldn't handle.


End file.
